The Promise of the Spirit

from “Mountain Building” by Victor Hernández Cruz

The Moros live on the top floor eating

Roots and have a rooster on the roof

Africans import okra from the bodega

The Indians make a base of guava

On the first floor

The building is spinning itself into

a spiral of salsa

“Windows and Lights” by Debra Hurd

Heaven must be calling or the

Residents know the direction

Because there is an upward pull

If you rise too quickly from your seat

You might have to comb a spirit’s

Hair

They float over the chimneys

Arrive through the smog

Appear through the plaster of Paris

It is the same people in the windowed

Mountains.